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Conference season begins again. Well it certainly seems that way \u2013 there are lots of calls around for papers, workshops and posters.<\/p>\nConference season begins again. Well it certainly seems that way \u2013 there are lots of calls around for papers, workshops and posters.<\/p>\n
A conference paper seems like an easy thing to do. Just write the abstract, then write the actual paper, and then present it. Not too hard.<\/p>\n
And not high stakes at all. A conference paper is not the same as the journal article you write for review for instance. It\u2019s not subject to reviewers\u2019 critiques \u2013 well no, hang on, it is. Pretty well all conference abstracts get reviewed in order to be accepted.<\/p>\n
Well OK. But it\u2019s not like a conference paper is going to be published and permanently out there in the world with your name attached to it. \u00a0\u2013 well no, hang on, it is. These days many conference papers are refereed, and published in conference proceedings. And more often than not, someone tweets your slides, and their interpretation of what you\u2019ve said, and that\u2019s then permanently out there in the world with your name on it.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the word paper that\u2019s deceptive. Paper. One. Only one. But writing and giving a conference paper is actually a lot of work. \u00a0While it\u2019s true that what you present might not the final version of a paper, it still requires the production of a decent text. Well no, hang on, actually multiple texts. \u00a0A conference paper is many sets \u00a0of words. A conference paper \u00a0is neither simple nor singular.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s list how many texts there might actually be.<\/p>\n
The abstract<\/strong>. This text is your bid for acceptance. The abstract has to be well argued and a good fit with the conference themes. It has to get past reviewers who may have different ideas from you about what constitutes a piece of research. More and more conferences now provide abstract templates that you have to shoehorn your proposed paper into. So, the abstract is not necessarily a text you can just dash off. For competitive\/desirable conferences, you have to put a fair bit of careful thought and revision into the conference abstract<\/p>\n The paper.<\/strong>\u00a0Your conference paper might be polished, perhaps even already published. But more often than not, it\u2019s work in progress. However, regardless of its status, you may be asked to submit your paper before the conference. Perhaps it\u2019s to go on a website. Flipped conferences require this, you have to read papers before you attend and the sessions are pretty well all discussion. Or\u2026 You may have to submit a paper to a symposium chair and\/or a discussant. You may be asked to distribute the paper in your session and be advised how many copies to bring. (Sometimes people put their paper on a website and just distribute the address).<\/p>\n A slideshow.<\/strong>\u00a0Now a PowerPoint slideshow isn\u2019t mandatory. But these days most people do have something visual. A good slideshow takes more than a couple of hours to put together. A good set of slides doesn\u2019t mean cutting and pasting bits of the conference paper. You really have to go back to make a new outline and organise the slides around that. And because most conference time slots are 15 to 30 minutes, at most, the number of slides you can have is pretty small. And if you don\u2019t want them to be completely unreadable, you need to work with less slides than you want, and fewer words.<\/p>\n This means you also need<\/p>\n A script or set of notes to guide your talk<\/strong>. You may well need to have something to guide what you say, in addition to your slides. Whether you talk from notes that sit under or next to your slides, or use library cards, or an edited version of your paper, this means you have to write another text. One that is written to speak aloud. Not the same as writing the paper. Not the same text as is on the slides. The good thing about writing a speaking text is that you can talk the presentation through beforehand to make sure that you can fit what you have to say within time.<\/p>\n A handout.<\/strong>\u00a0Some conferences now ask you to prepare a handout which lists the main points you will make. This is not a print-out of the slides, but a guide to the argument you are going to make. A handout is a long abstract. A handout usually also lists key references and may or may not point the session attendees to the full paper.<\/p>\n Now of course you may not have to do\u00a0all<\/i>\u00a0five of these texts. It\u2019s not unheard of for people to skip writing the full paper and just do a slide show and a script to talk to. But conferences are increasingly suspicious of people \u2018winging it\u2019, and are asking people to produce more by way of handout or full paper.And\u00a0you can see the point of that I\u2019m sure.<\/p>\n